Railcar movers provide a more efficient way to move railcars around within a rail yard than using a locomotive for such tasks. Being smaller than locomotives, railcar movers can sometimes develop problems getting proper traction. If the traction is improved, the railcar mover may be able to move additional railcars without increasing the size of the power source of the original railcar mover.
Some approaches to increase traction have been to add additional weight or ballast to the railcar mover, but increasing the weight, while improving traction does not improve efficiency. An apparatus to increase the traction of the railcar mover without appreciably increasing the overall weight of the railcar mover would lead to improved efficiency of the railcar mover.